Jan 31, 2014

The new MendelMax 2 is a complete reinvention of the MendelMax. It makes the MendelMax faster to build, easier to source and even better looking than before.

DesignThe MendelMax 2 includes a completely redesigned frame, made from aluminum extrusions and primarily flat plates. These plates can be cut from aluminum, printed, laser cut from plastic, or hand cut with a scroll saw or a coping saw (making this arguably the most accessible DIY reprap ever). A hand cut MendelMax 2 will virtually function identically to a custom machined one. There is no longer a reason to see your hand built machine as merely a means to an end.Triangles are a smart choice for the gantry, both functionally and aesthetically. From a design standpoint, I wanted the MendelMax to still be visibly a Mendel descendent, while not letting the shape get in the way of improvements. By switching to a right-triangle design, the MendelMax 2.0 gains ~50mm more z-axis movement (the exact amount will depend on your extruder choice). The new design results in a very open, unobstructed print area.

Specifications

Print Area Dimensions: 230 mm x 310 mm x 225 mm

Print Area: 16042.5 cm3

Printer Dimensions: 450 mm x 340 mm x 460 mm

Usable Maximum Print Speed: 150mm/sec or more depending on the part, print material, and extruder

Jan 30, 2014

Another great review by Barnacules of Ultimaker 2. He goes trough unboxing, setup, calibration, leveling and first printing. His machine came delivered with on extruder fan broken. The leveling process seems easy with adjustment screws on the bottom of the print bed.

From video description:

The Ultimaker 2To operate the Ultimaker 2 you don't need any specific technical knowledge. Every part has been redesigned to create one of the highest performing 3D printer available on the market, but also a very reliable one.

Ultimaker 2 specificationsEasy to use and reliableDesigned for non-expert and expertLarger build envelopeHeated bedLow cost materialOpen sourceJust like the Original the Ultimaker 2 will remain open source. We dare to share our knowledge because we believe we can achieve even more when working together.Easy to use and reliableTo operate the Ultimaker 2 you don't need any specific technological knowledge. With its 49 decibel it's a quiet machine. Because the electronics are bundled the Ultimaker 2 is stable and reliable. With its nice design the Ultimaker 2 is suitable in any working or living interior.Designed for non-expert and expertWe've made the Ultimaker 2 to be as easy as possible. You don't need to have a huge technological background to understand our printer. At the same time we've developed the printer in a way that it's still interesting for experts to work and create with.Larger build ratioWe've managed to get an even better print-to-size ratio. This means the printer size has remained the same, and the print envelope became bigger.Low cost materialBeside the fact that the Ultimaker doesn't use a lot of power, the material you use to print is also low cost. This makes the use of an Ultimaker very affordable.Layer resolution: up to 20 micronBuild volume: 23 x 22.5 x 20.5 cmPosition precision X Y Z: 12.5 / 12.5 / 5 micronPrint speed: 30 mm/s - 300 mm/sTravel speed: 30 mm/s - 350 mm/sRecommended filament diameter: 2.85 mmNozzle diameter: 0.4 mmStand-alone SD-card printingWiFi printing ready (future upgradeable)Software: Cura - Official UltimakerPrint technology: Fused filament fabrication (FFF)Frame dimension X Y Z: 35.7 / 34.2 / 38.8 cm (no filament)Frame dimension X Y Z: 49.2 / 34.2 / 55.8 cm (with filament)Operation nozzle temperature: 180° - 260° COperation heated bed temperature: 50° - 100° CAmbient operation temperature: 15° - 32° CStorage temperature: 0° - 32° CAC input: 100 - 240 V / ~4 AMPS / 50 - 60 HZ / 221 watt max.Power requirements: 24 V DC @ 9.2 AMPSUsage cost: ~ €0.05 / cm3 (material and power)

Jan 28, 2014

Pawel Dobrowolski is working on extruder made from plywood. He made first progress by making plywood gears.
Pawel later commented on this post that this extruder is based on yruds/yegah design which is popular in Poland and it is a part of bigger open source project called BYQ 3d printer made fully in plywood .

Here is video of the extruder made fully from 8mm plywood in action:

BYQ plywood 3d printer has no 3d printed parts:

Here is the GitHub for the BYQ with all the files to cut plywood parts:

Developed by Dr. Kee Moon and Jeremiah Cox, the device seeks to better conform to the way the body moved before an accident or injury occurred. Rather than rigidly control the movements of the leg, their device nudges - or kicks - the leg to begin natural physical motion. In the future, the bionic leg will further tie in with the brain to better adapt to former muscle memory, allowing the patient to better achieve their previous and unique way of walking or moving.

Brilliant ideas need brilliant materials. Designed to overcome the strength limitations of other 3D printed materials, the MarkForged Mark One 3D printer is the world’s first 3D printer designed to print composite materials. Now you can print parts, tooling, and fixtures with a higher strength-to-weight ratio than 6061-T6 Aluminum.

Gregory Mark, the President of MarkFoged, also co-owns Aeromation, another carbon high technology company responsible for manufacturing computer controlled race car wings. The wings are typically made out of carbon fiber because of it’s high durability, strength and low weight. They discovered that it is quite a challenging task to manufacture parts out of carbon fiber, because of the time needed and high expense in laying the fiber down piece by piece in the production process. That’s what motivated the development of 3D printer which could simply print the carbon material.

Now, after the initial hype, we can say that there are many uncertainties about the technology behind this printer.

carbon filament and various carbon fiber technologies have been used in 3d printers before, but as far as I know, no machine has been designed specially for the carbon technology and this would be the first desktop / prosumer printer

it is unknown how exactly Mark One prints with carbon fiber: is it a new "special" filament where carbon is mixed in thermoplastics or is it some other technology

Technology of 3d scanners is exploding together with the developments in 3d printing machines. Fuel3d is one of more high-end scanner that is much expected to reach the market.

They released the final design of production unit:

Here is the video presentation of Fuel3d and usage cases:

Here is what company claims are main advantages of Fuel3d against competitor technologies:

Turntable: The most basic and lowest cost 3D scanning systems use laser point or line projection onto an object positioned and rotated on a turntable. Prices range from a few hundred dollars up to low thousands. As a handheld solution, Fuel3D holds a significant flexibility advantage over these systems, as they are fixed position and the object being scanned is limited by turntable size.

Sweeping laser line: To enable scanning of larger objects, scanners are available that project a laser line, which sweeps across a stationary subject. With a few exceptions, prices for these technologies are typically in the $20,000 – $50,000 range. Fuel3D has a very strong price advantage over all these systems, with the added benefit of handheld flexibility and color capture.

Hand-held: 3D scanning systems have been developed to enable maximum scan flexibility for working around objects of almost any shape and size. Prices of hand-held solutions are now as low as $15,000 – $30,000. In addition to Fuel3D being much less expensive, we are not aware of any of these handheld systems that collect color data in addition to 3D geometry.

Microsoft Kinect: Some low-cost handheld scanning solutions are being developed using the Microsoft Kinect platform. These systems are typically quite low-resolution resolution, so while they are good for capturing environments, they do not have the data precision or resolution for detailed object capture like Fuel3D.

Claiming things for marketing is usual, but, as always, more real-life thir party testing is needed.

The Fuel3D scanner is priced from 1,250 USD without shipping costs or taxes. Estimated shipping start is in September of 2014.
Company page:

Adobe is joining the ranks of corporations that got into 3d printing field. Photoshop cc update 14.2 bringe many features for 3d model print preparation and support for several 3d printers.
Support for directly printing from Photoshop CC to 3D Systems Cube, MakerBot Replicator 2, MakerBot Replicator 2x and Zcorp Full Color is built in, as is the ability to export an STL file.
It can work with several 3d print object properties, such as:

Printer Volume – This will show the measurement that the model is shown in (the numbers marked in Blue are shown in the chosen measurement).

Detail Level – Minimum size of features that can be printed.

Show Printer Volume Overlay – This is the cage around the model, the cage is generated and shows the maximum capacity of the print chamber in the 3D printer

Printer Volume – The size of the print chamber in the measurements that have been specified above.

Scene Volume – This is the size of the physical cage around the model inside Photoshop CC, this can be modified using the numbers, or a fast way to scale the model to the cage is it click the button marked “Scale to print volume”.

Surface Details – Photoshop CC will use the Bumps, normal maps and opacity to enhance the final detail.

Support Structures – Photoshop CC will generate the supports and raft for the output preview.

For Photoshop CC to be able to print the model, it will automate the following tasks for you, i.e :-

Wall Thickness – The model is hollow, the walls will need to be adjusted to make sure the minimum wall thickness is achieved, in accordance to the selected printer specification.

Repair the model – The Model may not be, what’s know as “Water tight”, which means it may have holes in it, or normals that are the wrong way around (there are other elements here as well), that will cause the print to not properly.

Create scaffolding – The elements that we explained earlier that are ‘floating’ need to be supported during the print.

Short introduction video:

More detailed video with demonstration of new 3d printing features:

Opinions on this move differ from person to person. Some say that Adobe should focus more on their core business and Photoshop CC is just not the most suitable choice for this role and can not replace specialized 3d printing CAD / CAM tools with long development. The future will show how Adobe and Photoshop will fit into the high-end industry where they want to be and how the hobbyist and DIYers will use it.

Jan 27, 2014

If you are using OpenSCAD and you are limited by its simple code editor, you can use it with advanced text editors like Sublime Text or Textmate to code in. They offer many advanced options like syntax coloring, automation of many manual operations etc.

You can use OpenSCAD with almost any external text editor, here is the short explanation:

OpenScad is able to check for changes of files and automatically recompile if a file change occurs. To use this feature enable "Design->Automatic Reload and Compile"

Once the feature is activated, just load the scad file within OpenSCAD as usual ("File->Open..").

After that, open the scad file in your favorite editor too. Edit and work on the scad file within the external editor. Whenever the file is saved to disk (from within the external editor), OpenSCAD will recognize the file change and automatically recompiles accordingly.

The internal editor can be hidden by minimizing the frame with the mouse or by selecting "View->Hide editor".

Open SCAD is programmatic CAD that is used most often, but there are many others. Some of them have syntax coloring, and probably some more could be used with external text editors.

It looks like some sort of K8200 clone or re-brandedimported machine from Philippines. It is sold for 100 000 Philippine Peso which is almost 2200 USD. I have a filing that any Philippino interested in buying it could build a better printer for less money. On other hand, maybe it's hard to import parts into Philippines.

Technical specifications:

Linear ball bearings: 8 and 10 mm

Technology: FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) for PLA and ABS

Power supply: 15 V / 6.5 A max.

Standard USB 2.0 to Mini 5pin

Dimensions of printable area: 200 x 200 x 200mm

Typical printing speed: 100 mm/s

Maximum print speed: 150 to 300 mm/s (depending on the object to be printed)

Extrusion nozzle: 0.5 mm

Extrusion thermistor: NTC 100K

Extruded aluminum profiles: 20 mm wide

Movement: 4 Wantai Stepper Motor

Printer Dimension: 600mm x 430mm x 580mm (L x W x H)

Packaging Dimension: 650mm x 515mm x 640mm (L x W x H)

Resolution:

Nominal mechanical resolution:

X and Y: 0.015 mm (smallest step the printing plate can move in the X and Y direction)

Barnacules has another nice video tutorial about how he mounted active cooling fan on his Robo 3D printer Arduino controller board to prevent overheating. He used 3d printed mounting brackets.

From video description:

You can print these brackets on your Robo3D with heated bed off to prevent a crash and have your printer fix itself! You don't really need a 2nd 3D printer :P
Get Fan Bracket @ http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:166045

Today while printing on my Robo 3D I ran into a problem where after 30 minutes it would just shut down and stop printing, after this happened 3 - 4 times in a row I flipped the printer over and felt the ramp board and it was on fire! I checked the forums and talked to some friends and they said that the ramps heat up really bad and can shut down if you run the heated bed at high temps while printing for prolonged time (known issue). The solution is to add some active cooling in the form of a fan to the Arduino board that drives the Robo 3D.

I used my Ultimaker 3D printer to print out a few brackets from Thingiverse.com to mount an 80mm fan to the bottom since I had clearance with the new feet I printed that raised the printer up for the Smart LCD Controller I recently installed (check that video out). The results were epic and in this video I will show you the entire process end to end to fix this problem once and for all.
The brackets were printed w/ following CURA settings on Ultimaker v1
White PLA material
0.2mm layer height
0.4mm nozzle
70c Bed
210c Hot End
100mm/sec
Cooling fan 100%
Total printing time approx 50 minutes...

Jan 26, 2014

It is about time to provide proof of Wally printing a large object. If you look closely you can see the bed going up and down to adjust for the bed level. It took about 7 hours to print the vase. It is 100mm x 100mm x 145mm. I used a .4mm nozzle and did .2mm tall layers. I used default slic3r speeds. I have gone as much as 4 time faster while I was watching but for an unattended print like this I wasn't as adventurous. I suspect that I can go about 2 times as fast before surface quality suffers.

Many people are building machines they designed from scratch. Here is combination of CNC machine and 3d printer which is well documented with complete build guide. It has some interesting features like printing with many materials.

Here is 2BEIGH3 as CNC cutter slicing trough acrylic plate:

Here is 2BEIGH3 3d printing with Nylon (btw: printing Nylon emits toxic fumes, it should be done in controlled environment):

This hybrid can print with various materials like ABS, PLA, different nylon polymers, acrylic and It can also print with reclaimed PET from the regular PET bottles. Here are the images of printed objects in different materials:

This is not your Prusa Mendel. This is the Godzilla of advanced industrial 3d printers, a hybrid metal laser sintering and high precision milling machine.
It can produce highly precise medical and dental implants and high end custom aerospace industry parts. The structures can have intricate internal structure that can decrease weight, improve cooling or add advanced structural properties.
Lumex Avance can also print complex molds and casts with integrated cooling for high cycle injection molding.
Typically, milling produces debris, or chips, of removed material that vary in size. However, the LUMEX machine utilizes dry cutting, meaning no coolant is used. For this reason, the cutters are very small and the machining metal removal is a fine powder. Thus, the porosity is theoretically equal to the particle size of the powder and gets incorporated into the powder mix. Usually, no removal of milling chips is needed.

Machines like this are the future of manufacturing which is already here, just not evenly distributed.

Technical specifications:

Matsuura will go to north American market with their hybrid 3d printer. They plan to sell ten machines in 2014 which cost 800,000 - 1,000,000 USD per piece. This reminds me of the time in early history of computing when IBM executives claimed that the world needs only 8 computers.

I REALLY love this designs by MadLab. It is like something from a SF movie. Kudos to the designers!

Here is the video about design process and technology:

Reverberating Across the Divide reconnects digital and physical contexts through a custom chronomorphologic modeling environment. The modeling interface uses a three phase workflow (3D scanning, 3D modeling, and 3D printing) to enable a designer to craft intricate digital geometries around pre-existing physical contexts.

Chronomorphology –– like its nineteenth-century counterpart chronophotography –– is a composite recording of an object’s movement. Instead of a photograph, however, the recording medium here is a full three-dimensional model of the object — a virtual creature simulated within a digital environment. This virtual creature exists as a 3D printable module; it is constructed as a closed mesh, with a spring skeleton that prevents self-intersections. The composite, chronomorphologic model (of the virtual creature over time) retains these printable properties at each time-step. Therefore, no matter how intricate or complex, the digital geometry will always be exported as a valid, 3D printable mesh.

The chronomorphologic modeling environment facilitates the rapid generation of baroque and expressive spatial forms that both respond and expand on existing physical contexts. By mediating 3D scanning and 3D printing through the modeling environment, the designer has a streamlined workflow for oscillating between virtual and analog environments. This ease between digital design and physical production provides a framework for rapidly exploring how subtle changes in the virtual environment, physical environment, or designer’s gestures can create dynamic variation in the formal, material, and spatial qualities of a generated design.

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This project was supported in part by funding from the Carnegie Mellon University Frank-Ratchye Fund For Art @ the Frontier (http://studioforcreativeinquiry.org)
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Music: "Portofino" by Teengirl Fantasy (http://teengirlfantasy.angelfire.com)

Jan 24, 2014

At Victoria University of Wellington's School of Design, Richard Clarkson 3D printed these complex flower shaped objects from a soft rubber multimaterials that are inflatable and adapt to air pressure.

Recent advances in 3D printing now allow the simultaneous deposition of different build materials in a single print. In a similar way to nature, materials can be distributed seamlessly within objects for structural and functional advantage. “Blossom” explores the blending of two materials with varying physical properties transitioning from flexible to rigid. The variation offers an opportunity to generate complex forms and dynamic structures that are impossible to make by any other means. The research into applications of these Digital Materials™ has resulted in what is believed to be the world’s first inflatable 3D print. Forcing air into the cavities of the print causes it to ‘bloom’ and thereby reveal the complexity of its physical structure.

If you ask me, it looks somewhat creepy when its magnified and moving ...

I wanted to check the claim that it was the worlds first air inflatable 3d printed rubber object. On youtube I found this video published in September of 2013 that shows something that looks like layer 3d printed rubber inflatable object that has a system of chambers to manipulate the shape and vibration pattern by applying pressure.

There are many options and variables when choosing the 3d design software that suits your needs when you get into 3d printing.
Here is a useful decision tree chart that will simplify the decision based on price, platform and your personal preferences:

Click on the chart for bigger size version:

Here is the page dedicated to 3d printing related software and links to it:

MTM Multifab is truly multifunctional desktop manufacturing machine that was very innovative and ground breaking in the field of DIY 3d printing when it was developed. Ultimaker, very well known and powerful 3d printer, is based on this machine.
Multifab has several replaceable tool head options:

REPEATING PIPETTER, This fluid dispensing toolhead was created in collaboration with MIT's Innovations in International Health program, and has uses in automated biology research and disease diagnostics fabrication.

PLOTTER HEAD, A pen attached to the multifab can allow easy labeling of objects, caligraphy, etc...

PLASTIC EXTRUDER, Based on the Rep-Rap project, this extrusion head will enable additive manufacturing in plastics such as ABS.

MTM Multifab 3d printing

Here are some videos of Multifab in action writing and pipettering:

Demonstration of the MTM Multifab fitted with an auto-pipetting toolhead. The toolhead was designed with Amber Houghstow and Jose Gomez-Marquez of the MIT Innovations in International Health program, with the goal of automating production of XoutTB diagnostic assays. Perhaps it can also find a use in the DIY Bio community.
The MTM Multifab is part of the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms Machines That Make project.

Here is overview of Multifabs components, tools and development status:

The instructions, plans and BOMs should be available for anyone who wants to build it, but all the files and documents links I tried on the site were broken. I hope it will be repaired soon, the public could benefit greatly with this machine.

Fab-in-a-Box

The Multifab is core machine of FAB in a Box framework system that should provide full digital fabrication environment that user could make at their home from simple parts. It contains:

Infrastructure.All of the key services which allow Fab-in-a-Box to be a cohesive toolset. These include the network, the box itself, power distribution, etc. It consist of the:

THE NETWORK: FABNET, An RS485-based network is the nervous system of the toolset, which connects the "brain" - a laptop running control software - to the tools and sensors comprising Fab-in-a-Box.

THE SUITCASE, The suitcase is the heart of the matter. It is what contains the entire fab in a box project.

Multifab. A computer-controlled multipurpose fabrication tool. Work includes integration into the box, the xyz motion stage, and multiple toolheads to perform various fabrication tasks. Multifab has many subsystems, components and parts:

XYZ GANTRY, The key component of the multifab tool is a high-speed and rigid xyz gantry capable of accomodating a wide range of fabrication processes.

H-BRIDGE, This module is able to control the average voltage across a load, such as the spindle's DC motor, using a technique called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM).

RC SERVO CONTROLLER, RC servos, typically found in radio controlled airplane models, use feedback to control the position of their output shaft. This controller can set the position of up to 8 servos, and is used in the auto-pipetter toolhead.

REPEATING PIPETTER, This fluid dispensing toolhead was created in collaboration with MIT's Innovations in International Health program, and has uses in automated biology research and disease diagnostics fabrication.

PLOTTER HEAD, A pen attached to the multifab can allow easy labeling of objects, caligraphy, etc...

1-AXIS MOTION CONTROL, Additional axes can easily be simultaneously controlled by adding them onto the network. The disadvantage as compared to a multiple-axis controller is increased network load.

PLASTIC EXTRUDER, Based on the Rep-Rap project, this extrusion head will enable additive manufacturing in plastics such as ABS.

JOG DIAL, The multifab can be positioned by hand using a networked jog dial. This interface can also provide more complex control of parameters typically adjusted on the computer such as feed rate.

Other Fab. All other tools needed to make something. Examples are the soldering iron, hand tools, and programming interfaces.

SOLDERING IRON, A soldering iron with temperature adjustment over the network.

AUTO BINS, Parts bins which light up to indicate where a needed component is located. This could be part of a computer-assisted-stuffing project.

FUME EXTRACTOR, A fume extractor with a ring of LED lights around its intake.

IN-CIRCUIT PROGRAMMER, A network-attached microprocessor programmer.

NETWORK BOOTLOADER, A bootloader which fetches programs over Fabnet.

Measurement. Networked instrumentation such as a multimeter and oscilloscope. This is one area which will hopefully expand greatly on the road.

MULTIMETER, A multimeter which displays and records its readings on the Fab-in-a-Box laptop.

OSCILLOSCOPE, An oscilloscope which displays and records its readings on the Fab-in-a-Box laptop.

Autodoc. Everything related to making it possible to document a project "without thought".

EYE-FI CAMERA, A camera which wirelessly tranfers its time-stamped images to the Fab-in-a-Box auto-documentation software.

RFID READER, Keeping track of which hand tools were used, and when, is made easy with an RFID reader.

Some of the components were never developed, and most of the building related file links can not be opened. Probably all the files are somewhere on the internet, it would be terrible if they get lost forever. I REALLY hope someone publishes them as open source soon.

Jan 23, 2014

Must-watch video if you are interested into DIY, desktop manufacturing machines, hacking, making and generally awesome stuff!

Nadya Peek speaks about the process and basics of making machines that make, technology, digital fabrication economics, MIT modern high-end CNC machines and their limitations, how g-code is very stupid and how biologists buy expensive machines that are easy and cheap to DIY ...
She also talks and shows many interesting machines that you can make yourself like liquid transfer and auto pipetting machines...

From video description:

Making a new control system for a machine is often a slow and tedious task. Maybe you already have a 3 axis stage, and you already know how to move it around. But what if you want to add a camera and use it for position feedback? You'd have to redesign the whole hardware layer.

I'll talk about some ways I've built modularity into control systems for machines so that you can quickly iterate on different kinds of machine systems without getting stuck in hardware land forever. This includes connecting synchronized nodes across a network and importing legacy nodes for things like, say, an old pressure box you found in the trash and has rs232 in.

She also spoke about some high end CNC machines being monitored by gyroscope, sensors and GPS so they can not be moved without authorization to prevent them begin exported to blacklisted countries. Here you can see the perfect example of that crazy security policy: http://boingboing.net/2014/01/06/high-end-cnc-machines-cant-b.html

The talk was part of 30th Chaos Communication Congress (30c3) by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) at Congress Centrum Hamburg (CCH)

Jan 21, 2014

Electronhacks made this video to show production process of the 3d printed fan duct. However it is also excellent demonstration of friction welding plastic with filament inserted into Dremel. The friction produced makes a strong welded bond.

Damian Axford is developing new open source DIY laser cutter. axCut is influenced by nopheads Mendel90, BuildLog 2.x and Lasersaur. It is still under development but it looks very promising. I'll follow the project since I'm getting more and more interested in laser cutters.

axCut project requirements:

40W CO2 laser (with space to upgrade to at least 80W - i.e accommodate a 1000mm tube with water cooling)

Jan 19, 2014

It is not 3d printing but it is a sort of DIY additive manufacturing. Arduino Pro Mini board was made by using a pen plotter and the Electroninks Circuit Scribe roller-ball pen with highly conductive ink to draw a circuit on a sheet of paper. Electronic components are then mounted on it with glue or sticky tape. And it works!

This method for conductive ink printed circuits could be easily adapted for 3d printers. There are also several methods to produce DIY conductive ink with various material mixtures.
Also you shoudl keep in mind that this is made from paper, so if you put too much voltage in, it could catch fire. Stay safe.

Here is one of the many methods to produce homemade conductive ink. This one is easy and cheap, maybe not the most suitable for this type of project. It is made from copper particles suspended in gum arabic water solution.

The Pegasus Touch team found out another use for their printer. UV laser can etch UV sensible PCB boards to make surface for electronic components. Pegasus Touch will get software upgrade to implement this function.
This could become standard feature in all UV laser equipped stereolitographic 3d printers, their software and drivers need some simple upgrades which will hopefully be provided by manufacturers or third parties.

One commentator on Hackaday noted:

Neat, but useful?Currently I print my board on two transparencies, then aligning them on the UV-sensitized board, then placing whole thing under a UV light source. Two minutes of work followed by five minutes of wait?This new method would have me remove the resin tank, align and mount the PCB to the build platform (double sided tape?), convert my gerbers to a jpg/bmp, then finally print to the 3D printer?IF it’s saving time/money, it doesn’t appear that significant. Maybe if mounting and aligning the PCB was very quick and easy? Although I’m imagining a frustrating process involving double-side tape and wasted copper clad trying to correct the alignment.

So, this function could be useful in some situations and usage scenarios, but you will get the PCB etching job done faster if you are experienced user. This upgrade is simple software addon, so it is nice to have some extra features in a single machine.

Well, you can see it in the name. It is a chocolate 3d printer. Omnomnomnom ...
This printer is aimed at small chocolate business. It is priced at £2888.00 (exl. VAT).

From the product page:

Choc Creator is a simple, versatile precision desktop 3D Chocolate Printer, developed as a cost-effective solution for individuals, chocolatiers, entrepreneurs and small businesses to make innovative chocolate products; the possibilities are endless!
Features:

Easy-to-use printing head and quick-install syringe mean that the printer can be refilled within a matter of minutes.

Simple USB connection means that designs can be rapidly sent to the printer for creation.

Designed to print accurate chocolate line tracks from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm - much finer and more precise than any current manual piping technique.

Every step is computerized to offer repeatability without errors, and at the same time flexibility to manipulate printing parameters for meeting different speed and accuracy requirements.

Print onto various substrates such as on other chocolates, cakes, biscuits, dishes, paper for chocolate decoration as well as complete products.

Commonly used chocolates can be used and various chocolates (brown, dark, white, red, blue, etc.) can be conveniently filled into the printing head to print fantastic and artistic colourful chocolate decorations and products.

Printing Head: The deposition process is precisely controlled using a stepper motor to extrude chocolate out of a 10ml syringe. High Precision printing nozzle is used for fine printing (approx. 0.5mm to 1.5mm track depending on print setting). Two sets of printing head consumables (2 syringes and 2 nozzles) will be supplied.

Product Delivery And Assembling: Choc creator printer can be delivered worldwide and delivery typically takes 1-2 weeks for UK, 3-4 weeks for EU and 4-5 weeks for international buyers. The printer is fully assembled and tested before the delivery.